tasmaac caaritra-sampanno
brahmacaryam idaM cara
aNu-maatreShv avadyeShu
bhaya-darshii dRDha-vrataH
= = = = - = = =
= - = - - = - -
- - = = - - = -
- - = = - = - =
13.20
Being steeped in good conduct, therefore,
Lead this wholesome life,
And in what is even minutely blameworthy
See danger, being firm in your purpose.
COMMENT:
To conceive of "wholesomeness" as an end to be gained, and thence to strive towards it, without giving due consideration to whether one's means are wholesome or not, might be somewhat blameworthy.
Even a miniscule amount of that kind of end-gaining causes a gap to open up, so that body and mind become rapidly disconnected from each other. It is a recipe for very unwholesome living. It is a recipe for splitting oneself into two halves -- one half that wants to be wholesome, and the other half that doesn't want to be wholesome. Nothing could be less wholesome than that. Q.E.D.
It seems to me that it is an easy mistake to make to jump to conclusions about how other people are, without really knowing them as individuals, but based only on one's own experience and one's own opinions. I remember Gudo Nishijima pronouncing, in a lecture in the 1980s, that every human being has desire to have sex with another human being. The context was that my teacher was opposing the traditional "unrealistic" interpretation of the four noble truths that (sexual) desire is the cause of suffering, with his own more "realistic" understanding of desire. But it turns out (or so I heard on BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning), that about 1% of people are asexual -- i.e. they are neither heterosexual, nor homosexual, nor bisexual: they find both women and men sexually unattractive. In short, there are asexual people who don't want sex with anybody. So, not for the first time, the "realistic" view seems to me to have been falsified by a fact.
What I was taught in my 20s was not to suppress sexual desire, but just to leave it as is, without following it in my conduct. My teacher used the metaphor of allowing a rubber ball to float on the surface of water, not trying to hold it down. But in the background to this teaching, as I perceived it, was the idea that it was good to be celibate, that although there might be no sin in sex, it was traditional for a Buddhist monk to be celibate, so that if I could be celibate, that would be very good.
What would have been good, in retrospect, would have been to stop trying so hard to be right. For a start it would have been good to stop striving so hard to keep the spine straight vertically. It would have been very good if somebody had explained to me the difference between (a) holding oneself up rigidly with a lot of needless effort, and (b) allowing the spine to lengthen in such a way that the breathing becomes less, not more, restricted.
In order to lead a wholesome life, it seems to me, what we should endeavour to stop is neither sexual desire (which might be impossible for 99% of people) nor sexual conduct (which might also be impossible for many people); what we should endeavour to stop, primarily, is unwholesome end-gaining.
EH Johnston:
Therefore live the holy life, endowed with good conduct, firmly attached to your vows and recognising the danger of even the smallest faults.
Linda Covill:
Therefore live this renunciant life endowed with virtuous conduct, firm in your vowed observances, and seeing danger in what is only very slightly objectionable.
VOCABULARY:
tasmaat: therefore
caaritra: n. good conduct , good character , reputation
sampannaH (nom. m.): mfn. turned out well; ifc. " perfectly acquainted or conversant with "; endowed or furnished with ; (ifc.) become , turned into
brahmacaryam (acc. neuter): study of the veda , the state of an unmarried religious student , a state of continence and chastity (acc. with √car, to practise chastity)
brahma = in compounds for brahman (from √bRh, to make big or fat or strong , increase , expand , further , promote): pious effusion or utterance , outpouring of the heart in worshipping the gods , prayer ; holy life (esp. continence , chastity)
carya: to be practised
brahma-carya: n. study of the veda , the state of an unmarried religious student , a state of continence and chastity (acc. √car , to practise chastity ; cf. -caarin)
brahma-caarin: m. a young Brahman who is a student of the veda (under a preceptor) or who practises chastity , a young Brahman before marriage (in the first period of his life) ; the name brahma-caarin is also given to older unmarried Brahmans , esp. if versed in the veda , and by the tantras to any person whose chief virtue is continence)
idam (acc. neuter): this
cara = imperative of √car: to move oneself, act, practise, live
aNu: fine , minute , atomic
maatra: n. (ifc.) measure , quantity , sum , size
aNu-maatreShv = locative, plural of aNu-maatra: having the size of an atom
avadyeShu = locative, plural of avadya: "not to be praised" , blamable , low , inferior
bhaya: fear, danger
darshii = nom. m. of darshin: ifc. seeing , looking at , observing , examining , finding
dRDha: fixed , firm , hard , strong ; firmly fastened , shut fast , tight ; steady , resolute , persevering ; confirmed , established , certain , sure
vrataH (nom. m): will , command ; a religious vow or practice , any pious observance , meritorious act of devotion or austerity , solemn vow , rule , holy practice (as fasting , continence &c); any vow or firm purpose
3 comments:
Mike, I really must say that this was one of your best so far! Great translation and even better commentary! I read these regularly although I don't leave comments so often.
You wrote:
what we should endeavour to stop, primarily, is the unwholesome end-gaining rooted in "what's in it for me?"
I agree. Wise words. Thank you.
Take care,
Uku
Thank you for the encouragement, Uku, but my hope would be that the translation stands up long after the comments have been forgotten.
It is interesting that you liked a bit that I went back and edited out shortly after publishing it.
The reason I had second thoughts about it and edited it out is that I have a blameworthy tendency to criticize the "what's in it for me?" attitude in self and others.
But it might be asking too much of any of us to get completely free of this attitude in this lifetime -- I think that point is made in Shob. chap. 87, Serving Buddhas.
If we could at least stop lying to ourselves about it, though, that would be a start. And that means self-acceptance in regard to our own wrongness, so that we may stop trying to be right. This is an ongoing struggle, day by day.
All the best,
Mike
P.S. to Uku:
Since step by step my grasp of Sanskrit appears to be improving to the point where you can appreciate the improvement in the translation; and when you think that a year ago I was struggling with Teach Yourself Sanskrit chapter one, I hope you can draw confidence from my efforts to have a go at translating, for example, Fukan-zazen-gi directly from Dogen's original into Finnish.
When we feel daunted by some task like translating Shobogenzo into our own language from the original, it is generally because we look up at the end and we feel it to be impossible, instead of just focusing on the next step.
You have already got the only thing that really matters, which is a will to serve Master Dogen as a translator. So you must not be daunted.
If you start, for example, with ZA-ZEN, one word with two parts "sitting" and the Sanskrit "dhyaana." How are you going to handle that in Finnish? Can you use a hyphen? Can you make it into a compound word?
The characters FU, KAN, and GI are displayed and explained on my webpage at http://www.the-middle-way.org/subpage8.html.
So how do you say FUKAN-ZAZENGI in Finnish? As soon as you begin to think about it, you have already started work on your own translation, and then it is simply a question of carrying on, day by day.
All the best,
Mike
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